There’s a television show, ‘Hoarders,’ where people have those homes filled with stuff. Emotionally, in our minds, we get so filled with resentments where we’ve got a story about absolutely everything. – Chuck Palahniuk
My only writing ritual is to shave my head bald between writing the first and second drafts of a book. If I can throw away all my hair, then I have the freedom to trash any part of the book on the next rewrite. – Chuck Palahniuk
My favorite books to give or get are short story collections. And always paperbacks because they are easy to carry as you travel. – Chuck Palahniuk
Any ‘artist’ makes a living by expressing what others can’t – because they’re unaware of their feelings, they’re too afraid to express those feelings, or they lack the skills to communicate and be understood. – Chuck Palahniuk
When I first used to tour, guys would come up and say, ‘Where’s the fight club in my area?’ and I would say, ‘There isn’t one.’ And they’d say, ‘No, no, you can tell me, you can tell me.’ – Chuck Palahniuk
You have no idea what it is like to constantly disappoint people. You see it the moment you meet them. You see in their eyes that they expected something so entirely different, and here they are meeting… you. – Chuck Palahniuk
In 2008, while the film version of my book ‘Choke’ was coming to market, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. That meant that I had to appear in public to promote a comedy about a son trying to save his dying mother – the plot of Choke – while privately I was caring for my own dying mother. It was torture. – Chuck Palahniuk
I think it’s more important to write something that brings men back to reading than it is to write for people who already read. There’s a reason men don’t read, and it’s because books don’t serve men. It’s time we produce books that serve men. – Chuck Palahniuk
I haven’t had television since 1991, and it definitely influences me. As a child of the 1970s, I couldn’t hold a narrative in my head; I was lucky if I could hold a joke in my head, because every time you turn on television or radio, it wipes the slate clean – at least in my case. – Chuck Palahniuk
Since change is constant, you wonder if people crave death because it’s the only way they can get anything really finished. – Chuck Palahniuk
I have a lot of fans who are in the prison system, where ramen noodles are a kind of staple. Prisoners are always sending me recipes. – Chuck Palahniuk
Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it. – Chuck Palahniuk
I think my heart always goes out to men at the peak of their celebrity who checked out. There’s such an odd, horrible trend in my lifetime for it – Kurt Cobain, David Foster Wallace, Alexander McQueen, Heath Ledger. – Chuck Palahniuk
The pretentiousness of literature really annoys me; the way a writer is held as this sort of magical person to be revered on the stage. Everything I do on tour is to try and destroy that pretense. – Chuck Palahniuk
We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. – Chuck Palahniuk
When I first started writing, it was me alone with a computer in my apartment. I hated the time away from other people, and my writing sucked. Now I have a laptop; I can do the most tedious part of my job in a public place. – Chuck Palahniuk
It’s funny how you never think about the women you’ve had. It’s always the ones who get away that you can’t forget. – Chuck Palahniuk
I tell everyone I interact with what I’m working on and let them bring me anecdotes that illustrate my themes. – Chuck Palahniuk
Destruction is always an attractive idea. My brother and I used to spend weeks making models of cities so that we could destroy them in 15 minutes. There’s a fantastic joy in destroying something that you’ve meticulously built. Then you’re free to build a new thing. Destruction and creation… they’re inseparable. – Chuck Palahniuk
